Cold chain refrigeration has the potential to significantly improve livelihoods for smallholder farmers and small traders by reducing post-harvest of high-value crop loss, increasing profits through greater bargaining power at the market place, and enabling better commercialisation of agricultural produce in regional and international markets.
Ecofrost Solar Cold Room, identified for delivering excellent technical performance, short repayment period and its hi-tech Internet of Things system for on farm cooling. Ecozen secured the second position at the in the CLASP-managed Global LEAP Awards Off-Grid Cold Chain Challenge (OGCCC). Ecofrost is an internet-enabled portable cold room to enable on-farm cooling. It runs on solar energy with capability of both staging and pre cooling. It is built with a unique technology of thermal energy storage to provide you a battery-less backup.
Blue Sky Herbs, part of Kubali Limited, may be less than a year old, but no other farm in Laikipia County, Kenya can boast of hosting an advanced solar cold room unit. In the midst of lush and aromatic herb farmlands, the stark white Ecofrost cold storage unit with sparkling new solar panels is hard to miss.
The OGCCC is an international competition to identify and promote the most energy-efficient, sustainable and cost-effective technologies that can meet cold room storage requirements for fresh fruits, vegetables, and dairy products in Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. The Global LEAP OGCCC competition is a joint initiative with Energy 4 Impact, with the support of the Ideas to Impact programme, which is funded by the UK Department for International Development, and Power Africa’s Beyond the Grid initiative.
